I had to have surgery this summer and it made a big mess of all my summer plans. I do have some overwintering cocoons available of luna, polyphemus and io. They are $5ea. You can keep them in the fridge in a sealed container and they will hatch out in spring

With consistent warmer weather I am getting more moths to hatch out, attract wild mates, and lay eggs. I am now getting cecropia, io, and promethea. I am still getting luna and polyphemus as well. Ova from all of these are $15 for 20 shipped.

cecropia pairing

I'm starting to see more butterflies and moths in my yard. My moths are just starting to hatch and attract mates. I have eggs available from A luna and A polyphemus. I sell the eggs (ova) for $15 for 20. C promethea,  A io, and H cecropia should be available in a couple more weeks. They are almost always later than polyphemus and luna.

My first polyphemus pairing of the year

The white admiral caterpillar I posted last time has now made a pupa (chrysalis) and should hatch in the next week or two. 

Virginia bluebells blooming in my yard

White admiral caterpillar that I overwintered eating choke cherry

Were getting closer. Spring has come. Early spring flowers are up. Some of the plants and my prairie/ butterfly garden and poking through. I can barely see many of my milkweeds coming up. Most trees are leafing out. I have only seen a few butterflies; cabbage whites and sulphers. I have heard reports of others though. I have all of my cocoons and sphinx pupa outside. It will probably be at least a couple weeks till they start hatching. They usually don't start until overnight temps are above 50F and we are not there yet. (It was 39 when I got up this morning). I plan on having luna, polyphemus, promethea, cecropia, and io  ova(eggs) available. I sell them $15 for 20 and that includes mailing them. I mail them in small padded envelopes as they usually get there quicker. I prefer not to sell them in smaller quantities, but if you want to mix and match that is fine as long as they are available at the same time. Sometimes they are and other not. I have no control over it. Most years they seem to have an order in which they hatch. Luna usually start hatching first in late May followed by polyphemus in early June, and then cecropia, promethea, and io in mid June. I might have other sphinx and butterfly species, but I'll wait to post these as they come available.

Rattlesnake Master coming up in my prairie/ butterfly garden

OK, Here goes. This is my first blog entry for my website. I'm still playing around with it a bit and seeing what I can, or cannot do. It is still very early in the season and supposed to snow today, so it will still be a while till I have anything available for butterflies or moths. Usually the last week of May is when that starts.

I am starting to plant seeds indoors for both butterfly host plants as well as more native plants to put in my ever expanding butterfly/ prairie garden. Usually 6 weeks ahead of the last frost date is when I start them, but some take a little longer to get started. I have a variety of native plant seeds stratifying in my fridge. Many have been in there since the first week of January so I'll start planting them soon

I just woke up my snakes out of brumation a couple weeks ago and they have started eating again. I still have a few black milk babies from last year. 1 female and 2 males. The males are $70 ea and the female $90. They are eating great on f/t pinkies. Overnight shipping is $50 or if you live in the Twin Cities MN area you can pick them up or maybe we can work something out.